Disaster communication of the media in a public relations perspective
Assoc. Prof. Rachmat kriyantono, PhD

School of Communication, Universitas Brawijaya

Abstract

Disaster communication of the media in a public relations perspective

Rachmat Kriyantono, PhD
Associate Professor in Public Relations at School of Communication, Universitas Brawijaya, Indonesia


Abstract:
This study aims to prove that there is a change in media coverage of the disaster along with the development of the new media. In the context that media is a public relations information partner, then media coverage can be interpreted as a portrait of public communications about disaster because media news sources can come from government agencies. Disaster has a wide impact for the public so that the public needs, not only information on the incident, but also disaster-related education. It possible that new media is able to meet the needs of this public. However, through content analysis of 479 from the 19 online news portals from September 20 to October 4, 2016, research results show that disaster reporting focuses only on giving information about the event and has not been able to educate and foster resilience for the community. This finding correlates with other findings that media coverage in Indonesia related to disasters only focuses on the occurrence of disasters. That is, the function of education pre and post disaster cannot be reached optimally because the media only focus on events during the disaster. This study contributes to the development of disaster communication studies by revealing the fact that the change of media from conventional to new media has not been balanced with the increasing role of disaster reporting for the public.

Keywords: Content analysis, Indonesia, disaster communication, new media, public relations

Topic: Communication Studies